


Terminal Velocity

by meikahidenori



Series: Thunderbirds are go AU [9]
Category: Thunderbirds, thunderbirds are go
Genre: Gen, the other brothers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-18 00:59:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7293064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meikahidenori/pseuds/meikahidenori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A accident in space calls for a unique kind of rescue.</p><p>Mostly John and Alan centric, does involve the other brothers a little, but not as major characters. set when Alan is 17 and John is 26, so International rescue had been in operation for almost three years at this point.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Terminal Velocity

**Author's Note:**

> excuse spelling mistakes, Open office's last update completely removed all my Dictionaries, UK english and Australian english and they don't have any up to date ones to replace them. all spelling had to be corrected via skype and other places I could spellcheck. hopefully they rectify this as I have several other fictions almost finished I'd like to post here without having to stuff around.

Ever since Alan was a baby, John had always been there. Even when they were apart their other siblings would always say you never saw or heard one without the other.

When Alan was first shown the stars, it's wasn't because of their fathers old career, or their dead mother's fascination with them that made Alan want to fly spaceships and touch them. It was John.

John had been the youngest NASA astronaut to fly solo at age nineteen. Alan became the youngest ever at age ten, thanks to his brother's instance that he learn to fly and become an important and useful member of their father's new pet project, International Rescue, just like his older brothers.

Now, at seventeen, his eldest brother Scott had finally relented and let him spend more of his time in space with his older brother at the space station that orbited around the earth, provided he used Thunderbird three to get there instead of the dangerous lift system that the second eldest used to shoot up through orbit, because Scott never did like that contraption and was always dreading the day it would snap and send his closest aged sibling hurdling towards certain death.

Alan had been meaning to tell Brains to upgrade the pilot seats in the red rocket -amongst other things - because now he was too tall for the seats shoulder holds to keep him in place on lift off. He knew the engineer had other things to occupy his time, the biggest of the Thunderbirds needed some serious upgrades to some system or another due to a major malfunction on a previous rescue that left his brothers Virgil and Gordon trapped in a blizzard in Russia, both lucky not to have lost their lives to hypothermia.

Squished in his seat, he moved some screens around the holographic projection and created a link-up with Thunderbird five's communications.

“This is Thunderbird three contacting Thunderbird five, I'm ETA two hours from you current location and will be docking with you shortly.”

“F.A.B. Thunderbird three. How's she looking today Alan?”

Alan grinned back at the holographic picture of his older brother John, professional star-man on the monitor. “She's holding together nicely, bit shaky but she's an old girl.” Alan subconsciously ran his hand lovingly over the Thunderbird's controls as if she was his mistress. “I think this might be her last trip before asking Brains to give her an overhaul before coming up again. I'd like to be able to have my shoulders not scream in agony in the safety bars on launch.”

“Your fault for growing, baby brother.” his brother chuckled. Years of being the one doing all the communications in space, listing to distress calls and taking a back seat to all the action on the ground was showing on his features. Sure, John did spend time on earth now and then to starve off space illness – the unfortunate side affect of being alone in zero gravity for long periods could do a lot of damage to one's body mentally and physically – but it wasn't enough to take all the screams for help away.

“Yeah well I had to have a growth spurt sometime. There was no way I was going to be shorter than Gordon the rest of my life.” Alan laughed. Alan was now the second tallest of the Tracy clan, getting a very late growth spurt and now he was only several inches shorter than John, who also was the same in the height department and stood at a good six foot eighty five. He was also as skinny as John, but a little broader in the shoulders due to having more muscles from doing ground level rescues along with the rest of them. The differences between them were smaller now, the only way someone outside the family could tell was than now John's hair was more redder and Alan's more muted and that Alan's deep blues eyes were a striking contrast to John's hazel greens.

John shook his head. “I promise I won't tell him that.” Gordon, the second youngest in the family was the shortest and hated being reminded of it.

John's expression changed slightly as he seemed to divert his attention to something on the screen in front of him. Alan could see him swiping his hand across his holographic display on board the space station and then something flicked on the one in front of Alan.

“There seems to be an asteroid storm in your vicinity Thunderbird three, you might want to change course to avoid it.”

“F.A.B. Changing course now, sending thrusters to turn on a temporary fourteen degree angle.” Alan put his arms into the hand controls and carefully turned them, making the whole ship move.

“Alan, you're not moving out of reach fast enough, Change course now!”

“I'm trying, she seems to be stuck.” Alan tried turning the controls again and heard them click under the strain. They were refusing to budge. “Going to attempt to fire boosters, maybe I can out run it.”

He moved his left hand down over the booster rocket leaver and pulled it upward, the rockets extra power spluttering into life and propelling the rocket forward at a faster speed.

“I Think I might just miss it by a sm-”

Something big hit the rear engines of the ship, spinning it around wildly, shattering debris and sending it off into deep space. Thunderbird three had lost two out of it's three main engines, but was still mostly intact. Another meteor clipped it and sent it spinning wildly off course.

“Alan!” John shouted just before the communications completely went off-line. His fingers delft as he flicked around screens, pressing buttons and dancing along the panels in a desperate bid to try and get communications back. “EOS, what's the status report from Thunderbird three's systems?”

EOS, Thunderbird fives on board Artificial Intelligence and at times John's only friend outside of his family and International Rescue operatives, threw up any information it could find on the rockets last know status before everything went dead.

“I'm sorry to report John you're brother's dead in space. There's no power and no engines, the only thing I can find running is life support and I'm not sure if that's functioning as I have as much contact with the craft as you do.”

“Can you scan for life signs?” John felt the panic rise in his throat but held out by trying to concentrate on trying to match the stricken craft's current flight path. As a whole, they had decided as a family that despite all the dangerous things that they do, no one would be left behind, and even if everything was to go bad, they where at least responsible for bringing the body of the dead back home. It was a grizzly thought but a conversation they had to have numerous times. John hated the idea more than anyone else as no matter who it was he was always going to be the one listening to one of his brothers final moments clinging onto life. It was the one thing -besides Gordon's pranks- that kept him awake at night back on earth.

EOS's ever chirpy, childlike voice replied, “Only if I can get within range, we are too far out for me to run a scan.”

“That can be arranged.” John had managed to get a fix on the rocket's location. He grabbed the space stations console controls in front of him and pulled hard down on the engine leavers, which usually kept it in it's designated orbit and used the gravity ring to balance it out as it sling shot around the earth and into the same orbital location as the red Thunderbird.

EOS was quick to scan the second the craft came into view, and already John could see the damage. The rear end of the ship was mangled, however the middle and the front crew pit were still largely intact.

“Live signs detected, scan has also picked up that the back up life support is only operational.” EOS ran off the diagnostics, but John only listened to the main things he wanted to hear.

His little brother was still alive.

John turned and ran along the gravity ring, sliding along until he was in front of the space suits, oxygen tanks and other equipment and started grabbing gear that he knew he would need to get on board the stricken spacecraft. Grapple hooks, the grapple blaster, Alan's spare jet powered space board, extra helmet and extra air tank. One things was certain, John was happy that the gravity in space made a lot of the stuff he equipped about his person light to carry, otherwise he wouldn't be able to go anywhere with the extra weight.

“EOS, Patch a line down to base and get Brains on the line. I'm going to need the manual over ride codes for Thunderbird three.”

“You can't be serious John! I Like Alan as much as you and even I think you're about to commit suicide!” EOS sounded worried in her childlike way. She trusted John completely as her protector from the world down below where if anyone got their hands on her and her code she could be used to do very horrible things. It had taken time for her to get used to the idea of Alan coming on board of Thunderbird five, but warmed up to the younger sibling realising that the kid she almost killed with the grabbing claw years before when she was first on board the station was just as loveable as his brother was towards her.

“I'm dead serious.” John's face was grave. “I'd never ever leave Alan hanging, Dead or alive, I will always make sure I'm there to bring him back home safe. I promised at mum's funeral that that's what I'll do no matter what, My baby brother will never be alone.” John looked up at the camera that rotated around the space station that EOS now used as her own virtual eyes. “Grab the ship with the claw and hold her steady for me while I’m out there and keep an eye on those meteors as they are still in range. If they get too close and you can't deflect them with your blasters, then let us go and get back into normal orbit.”

“Without you?”

“Yes. Hopefully we'll be safe on the rocket and I have power functioning again.” he gave the camera a weak smile. He didn't want to leave EOS alone in space in the same way he didn't want to leave Alan. After all she was more than just a computer program now, his older brother Scott once saying she was like John's virtual daughter. She was – and always will be- John's happy little coding accident. “Don't worry, I still have links to you in my suit. You'll know if something is wrong.”

And with that, he stepped out into the air lock, and as soon as it de-pressurised, he was on the Jet board heading out towards the vessel, with EOS in control of the grabbing claw, grabbing onto the rocket to hold her steady.

He reached the cock pit portal of the craft and peered inside. Alan was still trapped in the pilot seat, drifting in and out of conciousness, a large wound to the side of his head. Something must have come off the walls inside and struck him in the impact, and the way the metal straps were holing him into the seat he also had to be suffering from whiplash as they didn't really offer much protection for a person his size.

Now, John had a problem. He had to get inside and do it without loosing as much air inside the ship as possible, however if he was going to use the manual override codes, those doors - once opened were never going to be shut, possibly tearing off with the sheer force of vacuum in space. He felt his way along the side of the ship, careful not to use the jet board encase he over shot the hatchway of the main body and got himself stuck too far out to come back. The suits, while amazing and streamlined were horrible at keeping a good supply for more than two hours. Visions of Gordon's talk about what happens to a person when you are under the sea and you suit de-pressurises from a lack of air inside were fighting to be heard, but John wasn't about to chicken out now, as the last thing he wanted to picture was the insides of his body all ending up inside his helmet as if it had skinned his whole carcass. Ok, so that happening in space without the pressure around you wasn't going to happen, but the very idea of it was enough to make you want to vomit.

He by passed the entrance hatch to the cock pit and went for the cargo hold door, figuring that if the door to the cockpit at the back of it on the inside might possibly close and seal off the vacuum keeping them alive long enough to get some power into the ship was a better alternative to killing them outright, clicked a cable from his suit to the side of the hatchway and opened the panel to access the manual override keys.

“Ok EOS, have you got a hold of Brains yet?”

“Patching him through to you now John.” these was a hesitant pause. “John?”

John knew he wasn't going to get the codes unless he responded. “Yes?”

“Your brother Scott is on the line and demanding to know what's happened to Thunderbird three.”

“Tell him I'm finding out right now and to keep his boxers from getting in a knot. Also tell him not to tell anyone else yet, I don't want them trying to get on my com feed while I’m trying to concentrate.” last thing he wanted was his other three brothers, their sister by accidental adoption and their grandmother on the line asking questions and getting in the way. It's not like they could do anything to help anyway, the rocket was the only way to get up out of the atmosphere for any of them to be of use.

“J-John I've got w-what you asked, but why?” Brain's voice came over the feed, loud and clear.

“I need to break into it, there's no power and Alan's stuck inside.” he kept the information to a minimum, he didn't want to make the engineer panic thinking something horrible happened to his speciality designed machine.

“Ok J-John, sending you them now.”

The glass on the suit's helm lit up with a tiny holographic LCD screen with a list of numbers and letters. John punched them into the key pad and the door began to hiss and unseal itself. The only downside to the manual override was that the cargo hold could not be de-pressurised first, so the suction of the air being sucked straight out into space was intense. Anything that was not bolted down was zooming past and blowing out into the abyss – boxes, spare suits, ration bars, extinguishers- the sheer power of the vacuum at work.

When he was certain he wasn't going to be hit by any flying debris, John leaned in the hatch way and aimed the grappling gun towards the door leading into the main cockpit, trying to find a place where a cord could get a good fix before firing. Changing the cord to clamp onto his suit, he struggled to pull himself inside against the vacuum, as if he was trying to walk in a hurricane.

He reached the door and anchored his suit again to the side of it, as this time the door was sealed with a turn wheel and he needed both hands free to do it. He swore as he tried putting his whole body weight into it, wishing that he had the strength of his younger brother Virgil and his 'jaws of life' power armour to get it to budge. That's why he was on the communications end, he just didn't have the physical build to do rescues of this nature.

He wouldn't let some stupid steel door stop him.

He growled as he struggled to get the door to budge, eventually it gave and flung open violently, throwing John backwards from the impact. Thank the stars he was still attached to the cable otherwise he'd have been sucked back out of the ship. He had to hurry, the air from the cock pit was sucking out rapidly and Alan could be asphyxiated if he couldn't get inside in time.

He had to drag himself along the cable and fire another one into the main cockpit, fighting with himself to change the cord over and then pull himself into the cockpit and up along side the seats. His brother was gasping for air, his lungs and throat burning as the air was being taken from them. The spare helm that John had strapped to his waist was quickly placed over his brother's head and the air tank was attached, filling the entire thing with a rush of oxygen.

Alan choked as the air filled his lungs and it took a few minutes for him to blearly focus his eyes on his brother. His vision was a mess, every few seconds he felt dizzy and like he was going to black out. He knew he must had taken a blow to the head, so he tried as hard as he could to keep his attention on his brother's worried face.

“Alan, are you ok?” sure it was the most obvious sentence in the world, but John was lucky to get any words out at all. “Come on Alan, speak to me.”

Alan tried to swallow and swore he was trying to eat a spoonful of cinnamon. “John?” he breathed out as if he was trying to force the words out of his lips.

“That's right, I'm here. I need you to stay with me..I have to close the hatch otherwise we will run out of breathable air from our tanks before we get sucked out into the vacuum.” John started fiddling with another grapple pack and attached one end to Alan's suit and the other back to the main console. “First I got to get you out of that thing. I saw the spare passenger chairs in the cargo bay get sucked out into the void and I don't doubt for a second this thing will be ripped free too.” the chairs for the pilot and co-pilot of Thunderbird three slid into place for launch and were locked into position, and the chance of them staying there long in a strong enough vacuum was millions to one. Already he could hear creaking of the seats trying to pull backward against the struts that held them in place.

“Right, F.A.B.” Alan choked out, squinting as his vision swam. He raised his arms and pushed at the secure metal that held him into the seat. He knew he wasn't strong enough to lift them on his own but with John pulling at them as well, they started to budge and rise, letting him free. It was like lifting several tons of bricks, his arms were screaming at him to stop pushing. He had to try otherwise if the seats did come loose he would be crushed against the back of the cockpit in them making this whole rescue a wasted effort on his behalf. John was quick to grab Alan's arm and pull him close till his brother steadied himself and was able to adjust to the sudden suction back towards the rear of the cockpit.

“I shouldn't have kept putting off asking Brains about those upgrades.” Alan mumbled, his voice sounding thick with tar. “She's far too old for this sort of thing.”

“It's ok Alan, it could have happened at any time.”

“Incoming meteors in approximately 10 minutes!” EOS's voice shrieked terrified into the coms of both their helmets.

“Disengage claw EOS and get out of here!” John barked back.

“I can't leave you both to die!” the AI shouted back, panic clearly in it's voice. EOS had been around both of them for so long she had picked up emotions of her own and was not ashamed of using them to try and guilt her human companions into seeing sense.

“And we can't risk another ship being damaged and obliterated in space!” John snapped.

Alan coughed a few times before adding, “Please EOS, if we managed to avoid being struck again you can come back an reel us in. But you need to listen, you can't help if your incapacitated too.” he choked a few more breaths before John had to grab him to stop him from letting go of the main console as his head decided it couldn't take the punishment. John braced himself hooking his right leg under the main chair's seat so he could hold onto both his brother, the console and not be sucked out the cabin hatchway at the same time.

“But boys! If I let go-”

“JUST DO IT EOS!” Both Tracy’s managed to shout.

They could feel the claw letting the ship go with a sudden jerk and the ship slightly spin, until the gravity vacuum started to change. For a brief moment it was pushing both of them against the view port of the ship and then back again, only this time the suction was harder, and more violent.

It didn't occur to either of them that the ship was being sucked into earth's orbit.

What was left of Thunderbird three shuddered and groaned, creaking as panelling from the inside and out was trying to tear itself apart. Without thinking, John held onto Alan even tighter hoping it was only just shrapnel hitting them from the meteor shower. Usually he would have loved to be sitting with his brother watching them pelt the sky, but being this dangerously near them filled the older sibling with dread. Something was wrong.

John really should have been paying attention to the noises coming from inside the cock pit. If he had he would have realised that the seats where being pulled by the stronger vacuum as the rocket began to plummet back towards the planet.

“Shi-” Alan started to say as he noticed through the view port how quick they where moving forwards, when the seat tore completely free from is fixtures.

John's right leg, never stood a chance.

***

“EOS, what's happening up there?” Scott demanded, leaning in at the hologram he had of the empty space station. He was in Jeff Tracy's old office having had the forthought of Brains to install a separate communications channel in there encase they got a call out that was too horrible to have any of his other brothers watch.

“It's a disaster!” the AI sulked. “They wouldn't let me pull them into safety! They didn't want to listen!”

“Calm down, what's the situation?” Scott tried to remain as calm as possible. He still didn't trust the AI after it attempted to kill a Tokyo skyrail driver and then attempt to murder both of his brothers years back.

“There was going to be an incoming meteor shower and they told me to get out as they didn't want to loose another ship and retrieve them if there was anything left.” the AI seemed to sob. “I tried to warn them if I let go they'd be taken back into earth's orbit! They haven’t even got the hatch shut on the cargo hold! They are going to fry on the way down!”

Scott wanted to swear and throw something, unleashing the frustration he felt. But what could he do? The only craft that could go up into space was the one that was already there and damaged so he had to rely on John, who had very little rescue experience hands on in the field and Alan who's experience was while not half bad, wasn't as extensive as the rest of them as he was usually used as a back up pilot and rescues didn't happen often in space. He had to trust them that they knew what they were doing. He knew they where both quite capable, but just how much?

“EOS, can you calculate their trajectory?” Scott asked. If they were not going to survive, at least he better know the location of where to find his younger sibling's bodies.

“Not far from Tracy Island, about 200 miles east of it, into the Pacific ocean.”

“Right, thank you.” Scott darted out of the office, bolted down the hall and into the living room where Virgil and Gordon were sitting, Gordon reading a book and Virgil sketching his brother.

“Get you gear on, we have an emergency, Hopefully we find something to bring back home.”

Both brother's exchanged glances. It was unusual for Scott to look so frazzled, and to also reel off a rescue as a recovery mission. Something was going on that he wasn't telling them.

“You heard me, MOVE! Virgil we need the pod for Thunderbird four, Gordon, have you got a spare scuba suit?”

Virgil had already made a run for the shaft that lead down to the bigger transport Thunderbird while Gordon tried to catch up with Scott to take the alternative elevator.

“I do, but it might be a tight squeeze.”

“Doesn't matter, I have to come with you in Thunderbird four. You are going to need serious help with this one.”

“That bad huh?”

Scott didn't say anything. Gordon didn't push it. He knew he had to keep his mind on the job, whatever the hell it might be.

***

Alan was fighting with his head. He wanted to be sick and pass out but he had to fight it. John had let go of the controls panel and was shaking, his body was starting to be affected by shock. He had lost all the colour in his already pale features, the only thing that had been a blessing was the way his leg tore happened so fast, he didn't even have time to register any pain. Alan couldn't quite see where the tear was, but his brother's leg was just no longer there below the knee. He was more than likely going to die from shock before blood loss. The chairs had wedged themselves in the hatchway completely blocking the opening, the saving grace of it keeping the flames that surrounded the rocket as it started to burn up on re-entry out of the cock pit and the whole cargo hold was now engulfed in a searing hot inferno.

They were going to die, there was nothing anyone could do. Alan's hand curled around his brother tight. It was rather ironic in a way, they were always together and now looks as if they were going to die together too. Alan didn't believe in any religion, he didn't think anyone who'd take his mother away before he even got to know her was an entity to put faith in, but John... was always there, fighting off invisible monsters, reading him stories, showing him how pretty the stars were, helping him prank his brothers... Alan was never sure if he ever once said 'thank you.' he had heard his brother say it numerous times to him, but he was certain he had never in return.

A lot of what he said came out as chest shaking sobs, but it didn't matter. He needed to keep talking for both of them, even to the very end.

 

 ***

“Do you see anything Virgil?”

“I'm sorry Scott. It would help if I knew what I was looking for.”

Scott couldn’t sit in his seat and it was making his brother's nervous about what they were doing around the middle of the ocean. Something was clearly up they we're not privy too and it was starting to get on their nerves.

“What exactly ARE we looking for?” Gordon folded his arms, growing ever more frustrated with the lack of information exchange.

“If you must know, Thunderbird three...” Scott's voice snapped angrily. “What's left of it.”

“What the hell do you mean, 'what's left of it?'” Gordon sat to attention, completely horrified. “What the hell happened?”

“Are you sure it's Thunderbird three Scott? Alan would have made contact with John at the station by now. You know what they are like, they won't call till it's late just to drive you crazy.” Virgil's brow furrowed, puzzled. Alan and John both pulled pranks like Gordon every now and again just to see how far they could push Scott's temper. Surely they are joking around this time and sending him on a wild goose chase.

“I'm sure.”

“What's that?” Gordon had gotten out of his own seat and was leaning to see out the front glass. Something had streaked across and crashed into the ocean.

“That's it!” Scott shouted. “Come on Gordon, we have some cargo to retrieve.”

“They were not on board, were they Scott?” Virgil's voice wavered.

“If they are? What would you have done? There was no way any of us could get to them in space.”

Virgil punched the console of Thunderbird two. “Damn it Scott! Why wouldn't you tell us?”

“It wouldn't have made any difference.” Scott looked dark in his expression, as if he didn't like the situation any more than his brothers did. “But we have a promise to keep regardless.”

“Bring them home, or not at all.” Gordon hung his head as he said it, trying not to look at anyone. He was also pretty close to both Alan and John and the news hit him pretty hard.

“Right, let's go see if we can.”

 ***

Grandma Tracy was trying her best to answer all of the incoming rescue calls. With no one on board Thunderbird five the default setting on the calls were re-directed back to Tracy Island. Kayo was doing her best to help and was wondering why Thunderbird two wasn't taking calls, or Thunderbird five being communicationally unfunctional.

“What are those darn grandsons of mine playing at?” Grandma Tracy scowled.

“I don't know but I bet it's something serious.” Kayo sounded a little concerned herself. She hated when she got left out of the loop and today was no different. Her job had gotten more interesting these days, doing a lot more undercover work along side Lady Penelope and the Global Defence force, but she was still ever faithful to International Rescue. “It’s not like John to shirk his duties, even with Alan there. The last time he was showing him what to do, so something has got to be wrong.”

“Gang way coming through! Grandma get Brains down to the med bay we've got an emergency!” Gordon came running through the living room at high speed, still in his wet scuba gear.

“What is the meaning of this Gordon Tracy?” Grandma Tracy growled, he voice could have peeled wall paper. “We have calls for rescues coming out of our ears and your running around like a headless chicken!” Gordon ignored her and grabbed Kayo by the arm, “Call the Global Defence force and redirect any emergency calls we have gotten, we have a crisis of our own!”

“What for Gordon? You're back so you can go out on them- oh my word!” Kayo covered her mouth to stop herself from shouting. Scott had come in trying to make head way as fast as he could with Alan being piggy backed against him, completely unconscious and still wearing his helmet.

“Get the med bay ready now!” Scott hissed at Gordon. “Virgil's on his way up and John's lost too much blood already!” Scott started to move again, towards a hidden panel in the wall which was the doorway down to the hidden medical facility their father built for them to use in an emergency if it ever arose.

“Sorry Kayo, this blood banks got a job to do.” Gordon gave a heartfelt smile. He had given up chasing after Lady Penelope for her affections, realising she only had eyes for the two eldest in the family, and had started to try his luck with Kayo who had gotten rather pretty the older she had got. He had stiff competition though, she seemed to have eyes for all of them at one point or another.

“Blood bank?”

“Best bit about having a crew that's all related, never have a problem finding a emergency blood supply.” Gordon joked to try and make the idea of his donation easier. He hated it when it was his turn, needles made him faint. He scurried after Scott, leaving Kayo and Grandma Tracy all alone to face what came through the living room next.

Virgil had really tried. He had treated his older brother for shock on board his Thunderbird and had done his best to stop the bleeding he had not expected to have to pin his brother down while Scott had to use the laser cutter to cleanly remove any skin that didn't correctly tear and in essence cauterise the wound. They couldn't even find the rest of his leg, putting it down to having it completely sucked out into space on the way down. He couldn't be certain until there was an x-ray, but it felt like the bone had been torn from the knee socket and the rest was just a complete mess. Truth be told he was amazed when they had been brought on board alive at all, Gordon excitedly talking about how much he couldn't believe how good their spacesuits and equipment was. If it wasn't for those they would have drowned on impact, though the little air that was left in the tanks meant it was very close thing.

He was careful carrying his brother through, trying to keep the missing limb hidden though people were going to notice that they could only see one foot dangling over his arms. He was navigating doorways with care, John's height making it hard to get through them as he held him. He didn't expect the expressions of horror he got when his Grandmother and Kayo saw him.

He had hoped he would never have to do this with his brother again. Sure, John was accident prone as hell back on earth but he was usually the only one who never got into a situation like this, the few rescuses he ever had preformed had always placed him in a position where he couldn't be injured. Scott made sure of it after the night when the whole deal about Internationl Rescuse had been sprung on them, as they had almost lost John that same evening. They couldn't aford to loose most of the brains behind the whole operation now either. Virgil knew that between himself and his sibling, it was the two of them that managed to keep the whole rabble together.

He didn't look up as Kayo grabbed their grandmother to stop her from rushing over. Thank you whatever god had been listening, he thought as he walked through the living room towards the med bay.

“Grandma,” Kayo said quietly. “I need your help to send out the call to the GDF. The boys can handle the emergency for now. We have to let someone know that we are currently un-operational due to an accident involving our own crew. They'll understand.” she gave her adoptive grandmother a hug. “They'll be fine, I promise.”

**

Alan struggled to open his eyes. His head was thumping like he had been drinking whatever had been left to ferment in their father's drink cabneit over the years. The light stung like hell but he managed, as now the rest of his body was writing out checks he just couldn't cash.

He couldn't remember how they survived, but they must have. It wasn't his first time waking up in the infirmary afterall. Usually it was because he was assisting Gordon on some dangerous rescue or another and his brother had forgotten his little brother didn't have the same amount of knowledge as he did and didn't give Alan enough of a warning to get out of the way.

Alan never minded, it was one of the few occasions Scott wasn't allowed to harrass John for not being up in space taking calls – because John would get Virgil and Gordon to beat him up for it if he tried. Without fail he would be sitting on the end of the bed, reading something like Douglas Adams or Neil Gaiman and would be more than happy to read out parts if Alan asked. He always did so, as he knew he was too old to ask his brother to sing songs for him to make him feel better. He wasn't five years old anymore, but his brother's voice always made him feel that everything was ok.

Speaking of which... where was he? Alan could barely remember the whole incident let alone ever letting go of his brother. He was certain somewhere along the line he had him in a one handed death grip.

He moved his headslowly, the splitting headache threating to spill his brain all over the floor. He frowned, trying to focus.

“Enjoy your nap Space man?”

“John?”

“That's my name,” his brother chuckled, his voice sounding rather horse. “Don't wear it out.”

“I promise I won't Star man.” Alan smiled weakly. It had taken a little longer than he liked to finally make out his brother sitting in a comfy arm chair beside him, holding his usual 'I'm just minding my own business but I'm happy to read it out' book for the day. It was the big hard back edition of H.G.Wells collected stories that Alan had gotten for him from an op shop near his university a few years ago. Like himself, John couldn't resist a hard cover copy of a book as the weight of something real in your hands was much more satisfying than reading off a tablet screen.

He started to take in other details, the strikingly obvious from the IV and blood drips going into John's left arm and the set or crutches leaning against the wall, to the least, like bruising around his wrists from where Alan had grabbed him when he started going into shock on re-entry.

“Don't push yourself.” John said queitly as Alan shifted in an atempt to sit up. “Wait till Virgil comes back. He's been hovering around here worse than a UFO around a farm, mostly to keep everyone else out.”

“You couldn't keep everyone out of here huh?” Alan found the energy to laugh a little.

“No. But I have tried.” John smirked. “If I can't leave this room without an armed escort, neither can you.”

“Fair deal.” Alan stared at the ceiling. “I'm sorry, if it wasn't for me...”

“Wasn't for what? You don't control the meteors in space. Gravity does that. Granted, Thunderbird three should have gone through it's scheduled maintenance, but the old girl hadn't failed till now.” John gave his brother a reassuring smile.

“Things happen Alan, I don't regret nothing about it.” John brushed it all aside and then grinned like a bit of a fool. “It may not have been an official rescue, but it was a nice reminder of why I don't get to do any of the physical labour on a mission and left in reserve if we are desperate. However I can't lie and say it wasn't an adrenaline rush, something that has been lacking for sometime being up on that station.” It was the truth, John, like the rest of them was a self confessed adrenaline junkie.

“But your leg..”

“What about it? It's a badge of honour, something that makes me feel like a belong to this stupid organisation which, let's face it, hasn't really happened since we started. Ok sure, I've flown thunderbirds one and three before on the rare off chance that you guys needed an extra set of hands, but it's still far removed form the action.” he stretched himself out. “Think of it like this, it's a reminder for me the lengths I would go to make sure you're safe Alan. For anyone of us. I don't regret any of it.”

“You always were a weird one John.”

“Hopefully I still am.”

“That's good, I wouldn't have you any other way.” Alan joked. “You wouldn't be my favourite brother otherwise.”

“You're just saying that.” John went red. He knew that it was true. It had always been that way ever since Alan was small. Sure he played with his other brothers, but it was always John he came back to. If he didn't John was always going out of his way to find him. John's shadow? Nah... More like Alan's keeper.


End file.
